I make things. This blog documents my projects and motivates me to finish them!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Down to the the wire on Vogue 8956

Almost done! I just have to do the inside belt/waist stay, sleeve hems, zipper and self-fabric belt. You can see my little rhinestone buckle near Barbie's neck. The ribbon at the waist is just a temporary belt.

Barbie is wearing two fluffers with the dress: my usual white one plus a teal nylon one (via Etsy -- impulse buying weakness!). I love the idea of a matchy-matchy petticoat! Unfortunately the teal one is four inches shorter than the white one so it doesn't ever peek out at the hem. I seriously considered shortening the dress to match the short fluffer, but it's not stiff enough to do the job alone. Oh yeah, and also because on me a 20 inch skirt looks like a crotch length mini. Legs for miles, yes! Lower butt cheek to chair contact when I sit, NO THANK YOU! I tried the new fluffer on with the heels I plan to wear so Matt could confirm my opinion. He agreed it was short, but he also said that I have "leg lamp legs". I take that as a spectacular compliment!

I had some issues with the hem last night. I decided to use a narrow band of horsehair (polyester) braid to give the hem a little stiffness. It was pretty easy to do! I just stitched it along the raw edge of the hem and folded it in with the hem allowance, keeping the fabric crisply folded along the edges of the horsehair braid.

The first problem was that my package of narrow horsehair braid included exactly 3 yards, and my hem circumference is approximately ten feet. A trip to JoAnn's at 10 PM was not an option, so I improvised by using stitch-witchery to fuse two pieces of 1" wide grosgrain ribbon together like a sandwich. Then I folded the fused ribbon in half lengthwise and stitched it down the middle to keep it folded. It's a little bulkier than the horsehair braid but the stiffness is pretty similar. It works fine!

The other problem with the hem is a combination of operator error and pain-in-the-ass fabric. It's lumpy. (Some things never change.) My outer fabric is not the same length as my underlining fabric in a couple of spots. Is it due to a poorly marked hem or sagging loosely woven fabric? Probably both. I've decided that I'm just not going to look at it until everything else is finished. If I have time to undo the hem and fix the problem, fine. If not, I'm guessing no one at the wedding tomorrow will notice except me - and possibly the mother of the bride, who is a home ec teacher.

Thanks to everyone who gave me their two cents about the beading on the skirt. I may revisit the idea for the next time I will wear this dress. For now, there's no way any beading or tacking is happening unless Cinderella will lend me her trained dressmaking mice. I have to wear this thing tomorrow!

TETRIS FABRIC

Jenny @ Chronically Uncool

I live in Belleville, Illinois with a great husband, a charming toddler, an obnoxius dog and a backyard full of snakes. I started making clothes for myself in 2007. I work on projects when there's nothing on TV (which is most of the time) and when Henry is napping (which is not often).
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